Joel - can we please keep politics out of this listserv. Personally I wouldn't trust anyone in power to act against their own self interests and that applies to politicians and anyone else with power (as in money, influence, etc.).
There are altruistic individuals in the world and when it comes to the development of an AI robot one prays/hopes that those are the software developers who implement the code for the three laws. Lionel B. Dyck <sdg>< Website: https://www.lbdsoftware.com "Worry more about your character than your reputation. Character is what you are, reputation merely what others think you are." - John Wooden -----Original Message----- From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List <IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU> On Behalf Of Joel C. Ewing Sent: Monday, May 11, 2020 10:12 AM To: IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU Subject: Re: Colossus, Strangelove, etc. was: Developers say... I've greatly enjoyed Asimov's vision of future possibilities, but when I step back to reality it occurs to me that his perfect laws of robotics would have to be implemented by fallible human programmers. Even if well-intentioned, how would they unambiguously convey to a robot the concepts of "human", "humanity", "hurt", and "injure" when there have always been minorities or "others" that are treated by one group of humans as sub-human to justify injuring them in the name of "protecting" them or protecting humanity? And then there is the issue of who might make the decision to build sentient robots: For example, who in our present White House would you trust to pay any heed to logic or scientific recommendations or long-term consequences, if they were given the opportunity to construct less-constrained AI robots that they perceived offered some short-term political advantage? Humanity was also fortunate that when the hardware of Asimov's Daneel began to fail, that he failed gracefully, rather than becoming a menace to humanity. Joel C Ewing On 5/11/20 8:43 AM, scott Ford wrote: > Well done Joel....I agree , But I can help to to be curious about the > future of AI. > a bit of Isaac Asimov .... > > Scott > > On Mon, May 11, 2020 at 9:25 AM Joel C. Ewing <jcew...@acm.org> wrote: > >> And of course the whole point of Colossus, Dr Strangelove, War >> Games, Terminator, Forbidden Planet, Battlestar Galactica, etc. was >> to try to make it clear to all the non-engineers and non-programmers >> (all of whom greatly outnumber us) why putting lethal force in the >> hands of any autonomous or even semi-autonomous machine is something >> with incredible potential to go wrong. We all know that even if the >> hardware doesn't fail, which it inevitably will, that all software >> above a certain level of complexity is guaranteed to have bugs with >> unknown consequences. >> There is another equally cautionary genre in sci-fi about society >> becoming so dependent on machines as to lose the knowledge to >> understand and maintain the machines, resulting in total collapse >> when the machines inevitably fail. I still remember my oldest sister >> reading E.M. >> Forster, "The Machine Stops" (1909), to me when I was very young. >> Various Star Trek episodes used both of these themes as plots. >> People can also break down with lethal side effects, but the >> potential damage one person can create is more easily contained by >> other people. The only effective way to defend again a berserk lethal >> machine may be with another lethal machine, and Colossus-Guardian >> suggests why that may be an even worse idea. >> Joel C Ewing >> >> On 5/11/20 4:54 AM, Seymour J Metz wrote: >>> Strangelove was twisted because the times were twisted. We're ripe >>> for a >> similar parody on our own times. >>> >>> -- >>> Shmuel (Seymour J.) Metz >>> http://mason.gmu.edu/~smetz3 >>> >>> ________________________________________ >>> From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List [IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU] on >> behalf of Farley, Peter x23353 [peter.far...@broadridge.com] >>> Sent: Sunday, May 10, 2020 11:39 PM >>> To: IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU >>> Subject: Re: Developers say Google's Go is 'most sought after' >> programming language of 2020 >>> For relatively recent fare, I agree 100% - "Person of Interest" >>> leads >> the pack. My favorite oldie -- "Let's play Global Thermonuclear War . . . >> " (War Games), right after Dr. Strangelove of course, simply because >> it was so twisted. >>> Mutual Assured Destruction indeed. Is SkyNet far away? >>> >>> Peter >>> >>> -----Original Message----- >>> From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List <IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU> On >> Behalf Of Bob Bridges >>> Sent: Sunday, May 10, 2020 10:21 PM >>> To: IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU >>> Subject: Re: Developers say Google's Go is 'most sought after' >> programming language of 2020 >>> I've always loved "Colossus: The Forbin Project". Not many people >>> have >> seen it, as far as I can tell. >>> The only problem I have with that movie - well, the main problem - >>> is >> that no programmer in the world would make such a system and then >> throw away the Stop button. No engineer would do that with a machine >> he built, either. Too many things can go wrong. >>> But a fun movie, if you can ignore that. >>> >>> --- >>> Bob Bridges, robhbrid...@gmail.com, cell 336 382-7313 >>> >>> /* The only thing UFO aliens deserve is to be ignored...and when we >> finally develop the right missiles, to have their smug, silvery >> little butts shot down. Not a single reported UFO sighting -- if >> true! -- describes the behavior of decent, polite, honorable visitors to our >> world. >> -David Brin in a 1998 on-line interview */ >>> >>> -----Original Message----- >>> From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List >>> [mailto:IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU] >> On Behalf Of scott Ford >>> Sent: Sunday, May 10, 2020 11:38 >>> >>> Like the 1970s flick , ‘Colossus , The Forbin Project’, >>> >>> Colossus and American computer and Guardian a Russian computer take >>> over >> saying ‘ Colossus and Guardian we are one’, or better yet My favorite >> show, ‘Person of Interest’..... >>> ... >> >> -- >> Joel C. Ewing >> >> >> -- Joel C. 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